The Man in the Canary Waistcoat

In this new mystery, Constable Sam Plank suspects there may be a link between a suicide, an embezzler, an arsonist and a thief in Regency London. As his steadfast wife becomes involved in his investigations, and with a keen young police officer now under his command, Sam finds himself leading them all into a confrontation with some ruthless and brutal adversaries. More

In this new mystery, Constable Sam Plank suspects there may be a link between a suicide, an embezzler, an arsonist and a thief. No corner of Regency London is untouched by these crimes, as he travels from the mansions of St James’s back to his own childhood haunts among the dank alleyways of Wapping. As his steadfast wife becomes involved in his investigations, and with a keen young police officer now under his command, Sam finds himself leading them all into a confrontation with some ruthless and brutal adversaries – one of whom he had hoped never to see again.

My name is Susan Grossey. I graduated from Cambridge University in 1987 with a degree in English, and then taught secondary English for two years before realising that the National Curriculum was designed primarily to extinguish every spark of creativity in its teachers. I then became a technical author, and reached the pinnacle of this profession when I was asked to document the workings of a choc-ice wrapping machine in Cardiff, while wearing a fetching blue hairnet (which I forgot to remove until it was pointed out by a cashier in a petrol station on the M4).

From this unbeatable high point I moved into technical training, and one day was asked to help with a staff manual on fraud prevention. As I wrote the chapter on money laundering, I realised that here was a topic that could keep my interest for years – and so it has proved. Since 1998, I have been self-employed as an anti-money laundering consultant, providing training and strategic advice and writing policies and procedures for clients in many countries. As part of my job, I have written several non-fiction books with exciting titles like “Money Laundering: A Training Strategy”, “The Money Laundering Officer’s Practical Handbook” and “Anti-Money Laundering: A Guide for the Non-Executive Director”.

However, even this is not enough financial crime for me, and in my spare evenings and weekends I write fiction – but always with financial crime at the heart of it.

Constable Sam Plank is a magistrates' constable working in London in the 1820s. He tries to understand the "why" of crime as well as the "what", and has a particular interest in financial crime. He is aided at work by his junior constable, William Wilson, and at home by his wife Martha.